6 Essential Management Skills and How to Develop Them
Effective managers are critical to the success of any organization. They are responsible for coordinating projects, assigning tasks, and motivating their team to achieve desired results. It requires a wide range of skills to be a successful manager and to ensure their subordinates perform their jobs well. Therefore, it is worthwhile to build a strong skill set in order to achieve your professional goals and advance your career in management. Here are just a few of the most important management skills and helpful steps you can take to develop them.
1. Clear and Concise Communication
The ability to communicate effectively is an essential skill for any manager. Strong manager-employee relationships are built on the foundation of clear communication. Managers must know how to clearly articulate deadlines, assignments, goals, and expectations so their team members know what is expected of them. Furthermore, they need to be able to communicate corporate announcements, give constructive feedback, and facilitate tough discussions when necessary. Fortunately, communication is a skill that can be learned and developed. Public speaking courses, professional business courses, and plenty of daily practice can go a long way toward improving your communication skills.
2. Active Listening
Listening is an often overlooked but highly important skill for managers. People in leadership roles often spend much of their time asking questions and giving out information, but they don’t spend much time listening to feedback. Listening is vital to developing a trusting relationship with your team members. They want to know their ideas are heard and their concerns matter. By fostering your active listening skills, you will build better relationships with your colleagues. You will also have a better understanding of the happenings around you. You can develop this skill by making a point to listen emphatically during conversations. Really concentrate on what the other person is saying rather than preparing your response. Try repeating back what they said to demonstrate that you were listening.
3. Delegation
It is essential that managers learn how to delegate tasks effectively. Many new managers want to prove that they can handle everything on their own and end up drowning in their tasks. A good manager, however, is comfortable letting other members of their team take responsibility for tasks. Not only is this more efficient, but it empowers employees to take ownership of their work. You can develop this skill by getting to know your team members’s strengths and weaknesses and assigning tasks accordingly.
4. Coaching and Mentoring
No one wants to work for a manager who simply barks orders all day. Rather, employees want to work for a manager who takes the time to teach them. Managers should see themselves as mentors rather than a boss, and work alongside their employees to lead them toward their goals. This skill is developed by making time to focus on coaching and teaching employees. Rather than simply assigning tasks, create a roadmap for helping employees accomplish their tasks.
5. Conflict Resolution
Conflict is inevitable in the workplace and if it is not addressed, it can turn into employee resentment. Whether it’s disagreements over project assignment or challengings personalities that butt heads, effective managers need to know how to handle conflict swiftly and respectfully. Learning conflict resolution will take some time, but it starts with knowing who you are and what your mission is. It involves showing empathy for others while also taking the initiative to make difficult decisions.
6. Flexibility
Finally, great managers need to be flexible. Things don’t always work out as planned but that doesn’t mean your response has to be negative. Setbacks are inevitable, but your ability to view these challenges as opportunities to grow will ultimately lead to greater success. You can practice flexibility by having a backup plan in place as well as creative solutions to problems that arise.
Top Business Management Skills Companies Look For
For those looking to enter the business world, a background in business management is an important asset. Professionals with a strong set of business management skills will be well-positioned to take on a variety of roles within an organization, and possess critical competencies that will help businesses of all sizes and sectors to grow.
If you're interested in pursuing a career in this thriving field, take a look at our top business management skills list to find out if you have what it takes.
Top Skills Needed for Business Management
Communication
Communication skills in business management are key. As a modern business professional, you'll need to be able to convey ideas, information, and intentions effectively and professionally in a variety of settings and formats, including both verbal and written communication. Being able to communicate clearly with members of your own team, as well as those in different departments, customers, and other key company stakeholders, is essential for virtually any role in the business world.
Management & Leadership
Whether or not you're in a management position, having a foundation of business management skills will position you well for future career growth and may even allow you to take on new challenges within your current role. Management and leadership skills are applicable even if you aren't managing a team of people. Management concepts include planning for, organizing, and controlling organizational resources, as well as preparing for and managing organizational change. While these might not be skills you can apply on an organizational level, you can certainly put them to use in your own work environment to practice for the future.
Financial Intelligence
As a business professional, it's important to have a grasp on financial concepts, even if you don't consider yourself a numbers person or see yourself in a role focused on finance or accounting. Financial intelligence is important regardless of what you actually do within an organization. Whether you're in sales, human resources, management, or marketing, you will need to understand finances. The ability to evaluate, analyze, and interpret financial data - and use it to inform business decisions - is critical, and will help you stand out as a competitive candidate for a multitude of roles.
Information Technology
Like financial intelligence, information technology is an important skill for today's modern business professionals, even if your job is not a technical one. Information technology is one of the most critical priorities of many organizations, and so having a foundational knowledge of the field will set you apart and help you diversify your skillset. It's important to understand that for most people, this won't require a significant amount of technical experience or expertise. Rather, for most business professionals, it will consist of the ability to interpret how information technology affects business operations, and to utilize business technologies to their advantage.
Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving
Critical thinking and problem-solving are two of the most important skills required for business management. In any business setting, regardless of your position on the organizational chart, you'll regularly face complex challenges that require thoughtful analysis and careful decision-making. You'll need to have the skills necessary for truly getting to the root of a problem and fully understanding it, by identifying, formulating, and communicating questions that guide investigation and reflection and observing patterns and creating connections that will help you come to a solution.
Creativity and Innovation
Today's business environment is one that is defined by innovation and creativity. In an increasingly competitive market, businesses are looking for new ways to capture customer attention and rise to the top of their industries. Being able to think outside the box and come up with new ways of doing things - whether it's a small-scale change to a process in your specific role, or a company-wide innovation - is a huge asset.
How to Build Business Management Skills
If the skills listed above sound like ones you have - or ones you are interested in building - then a career in business could be right for you!
While many of these skills can be learned through professional experience, and are often refined on the job, it can be beneficial to get a credential in the business management field to help you develop your foundational skillset, prove your competencies to future employers, and set yourself apart as a competitive candidate. A business management bachelor's degree is a great way to build core business acumen, as well as other key business management skills and critical soft skills, and find an area of expertise that will help deepen and differentiate your knowledge.
Here at Champlain, our online bachelor's degree in business management offers flexibility and career-focused learning to help you find success and become a subject-matter expert in the in-demand and competitive field of business. In this program, you'll develop an understanding of core business functions in accounting, finance, economics, and marketing to address complex and systemic issues in today's ever-evolving business landscape. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to differentiate your bachelor's degree with a specialization in one of nine different tracks including marketing, project management, supply chain, and more.
Overall, earning a degree in business management is your best means of gaining the top business management skills companies look for. Developing foundational business acumen and knowledge will help you stand out and succeed in today's competitive workforce.
6 Management Skills Every Manager Should Have
If you run an organization, then you are pretty aware of the importance of management skills. Proper management in an organization fosters productivity and work ethics in the workplace.
Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing- Warren Bennis
Managers are the glue that keeps an organization stick together. The manager sets goals for the group and works deliberately to meet these goals.
It also happens that managers often fail to figure out why their peers underperform. Therefore, the smart move for managers is to figure out the necessary management skills to improve their chances of success. And take time to figure out the essential management skills to improve their chances of success.
Here is The List of 6 Management Skills Every Manager Should Have
1. Empathy
'Empathy' means the ability to understand and relate to others' thoughts, emotions, and experiences and has a vital significance in good management. It's one of the fundamental skills for any manager across the globe and can't be ignored.
Empathy lets you connect to your employees at a very core level. It helps you being sensitive towards your employees' work overload. It also enables you to understand the needs, hopes, and aspirations of your employees. You become more willing to help an employee with personal problems compassionately.
This positively reflects in their job performance. Empathetic managers are better performers and appreciated for their thoughtful contribution.
The bottom line is that managers who display empathy have the upper hand over their peers who have difficulty expressing sympathy.
This soft management skill is not and fixed trait and, therefore, can be learned and developed. Center for Creative Leadership, the global provider of leadership development in their white paper, reveals that managers can hone empathy by-
Being an active listener would allow them to understand others' concerns and problems.
Taking into account the perspectives of the employees.
Cultivating compassion and considering the impacts of the business decisions on employees, customers, or clients.
2. Communication Skills
This management skill is vital for any manager. Often managers have strong technical skill sets, but they miss out on a lot due to a lack of communication skills.
Communicating in a workplace is different than what we do in general. You work with diverse teams and employees in an organization. Good communication is crucial to maintain an effective work relationship. The more open and verbal communication is, the better it is. Good communicators always have the upper hand in management since they can create a link of expression effectively.
Like I said earlier, workplace communication is different than what we do in general. Here, it is about efficiently explaining the goals or targets, products, and services, action plan, assigning tasks, giving feedback and appreciation, and handling any change in action and responsibilities.
Suppose you have a master plan or a solid idea to help your business in leaps and bounds. Your inability to communicate can restrict the project. Or you want to express your team about a new exciting prospect, and you fall short of words to bring the same excitement in them. That's when you can consider improving your communication skills.
3. Motivation
Motivation keeps the managers at ease and energized. Motivated managers know how to keep team spirits high even at complex tasks. Managers with good motivational skills also learn how to handle conflicts and opinions with an excellent diplomatic approach.
They know where to draw the line while giving feedback and pointing out shortcomings of the effective teams. They identify the weak links in a group and helps them realize them and motivate them to overcome them.
Another way to keep employees is to reward them. This not only motivates them but also encourages them to work harder. Though rewarding is a crucial practice, but for a few employees, recognition plays an equal role too. They get motivated when they are recognized for their skills and good work.
Management is nothing more than motivating other people- Lee Iacocca
4. Problem-solving and Decision-making Skill
They say to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. That is what problem-solving and decision-making skill helps you do. The job of problem-solving and decision-making is very critical in the workplace. It is inevitable for any organization not to face challenges. Addressing those with the right attitude is the key. Managers with this management skill take any in-hand problem responsibly.
Managers with problem-solving and decision-making skills know the right way to-
Critically analyze the problems and find their root cause.
Strategize a plan with proper brainstorming with the team members.
Implement steps and measures for both minor and significant issues in the workplace.
5. Encouraging a Healthy Work Relationship
If you see successful managers and influential leaders, this is one aspect you find familiar in them. They value and encourage work relationships. They promote work relationships with team members and respect each other's perspectives.
A healthy work relationship between the employees is crucial for them to enjoy their work. If employees are not comfortable with each other, it becomes difficult for them to work towards the same goal.
The manager or the team leader plays an important role here to encourage work relationships. This soft skill is often ignored, which, if executed with the proper understanding, can create wonders for the organization's internal health.
Following are the steps managers can take to encourage a healthy work relationship-
Managers must ensure employees get a common forum to discuss and share ideas and everyone is given an equal opportunity.
Encourage healthy work competition.
Promote transparent communication.
Be neutral and do not be biased.
When managers hone their management skills, they help the organization grow and create a happy workplace for all.
6. Emotional Intelligence
Did you know, in 33 workplace skills, emotional intelligence ranks #1 in importance?
Emotional intelligence refers to the capability of a person to manage and control his or her emotions and the ability to control the feelings of others as well.
Managers with high emotional intelligence are aware of their surroundings (workplace) and how the employees feel. It gives them perspective, and they self-regulate and be more empathetic towards them. This sensibility to hear and understand the employees helps break the glass door between them and helps the organization as a whole.
Related: Understanding and Utilizing Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
When managers hone their management skills, they help the organization grow and create a happy workplace for all.